The mechanisms governing cardiac response, electrolyte and fluid translocation, and erythrocyte destruction in response to thermal trauma are the primary concerns of this proposal. Additionally the demonstration and identification of elements developed early in the postburn period which continue their influence in such areas as myocardial depression and clotting abnormalities will be undertaken. Serial measurements of transmembrane potentials, cardiac wall motion and/or ventricular volume by noninvasive techniques and micromuscle electrolyte analysis will be performed on thermally injured patients. These same patients will also be studied for erythrocyte destruction and echinocyte formation and its relationship to cell wall lipid content and movement. Attempts will also be made to isolate and purify by column separation a factor of factors responsible for an observed myocardial depression and perhaps implicated in certain cellular abnormalities or depressions. Through the further understanding of these complex problems of thermal trauma, it is hoped that therapeutic intervention may be developed to correct myocardial derangements effecting survival in a significant patient population and the anemia related to erythrocyte destruction necessitating multiple transfusions.